Foundations and Futures in the Sociology of Religion

Luke Doggett is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Criminology and Sociology at Kingston University. He was a member of the Kingston University Organising Team of the 2105 British Sociological Association Sociology of Religion Study Group’s 40th anniversary conference. His research covers the role that myth and religion have played in human life, drawing upon philosophical material.Alp Arat is a research assistant in the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University. His research in sociology of religion specialises in secularisation and postsecular theory, with a particular interest in contemporary practices of meditation. He is a former Committee member at the British Sociological Association's Sociology of Religion Study Group and he is currently working on the Leverhulme research project 'Beyond Personal Wellbeing: Mapping the Social Production of Mindfulness in England and Wales.'

• Introduction: Foundations and Futures, Luke Doggett and Alp Arat; Part I: Marking the Territory; 1 Sociological Approaches to Religion in Britain, Grace Davie; 2 Postsecularism: In Defence of a Fashionable Theory, Alp Arat; 3 Media and Religion – Bridging ‘Incompatible Agendas’, Mia Lövheim; Part II: Institutions and Agency; 4 Secularisation – with Added Agency, Linda Woodhead; 5 Secularisation and De-Institutionalised Religion: Future Directions, Gladys Ganiel; 6 Lived Religion and Sexuality: Future Directions, Sarah-Jane Page; Part III: Embodied and Material Religion; 7 On Things Seen and Unseen: Enlarging the Vision in Sociology of Religion, Nancy T. Ammerman; 8 Futures in Fashion: Modest Fashion Practices and Influence, Reina Lewis; 9 ‘So That You’ve Got Something for Yourself’: Knitting as Implicit Spirituality, Anna Fisk; Part IV: Religious Dimensions of Social Life; 10 Researching the Religious Dimensions of Social Life: The Sacred and the Social Uses of Moral Meaning in Contemporary Society, Gordon Lynch; 11 Embodying the Sacred: Understanding Responses to Human Trafficking, Amy M. Russell; 12 Sacralised Conflict and Ordinary Ethics: Palestine-Israel in British Universities, Ruth Sheldon; Conclusion: Challenges Facing the Sociology of Religion: The Past and the Future Are Not What They Used to Be, James A. Beckford

'Celebrating forty years of the British Sociological Association’s Religion Study group, this book provides an important statement of where the sociology of religion has come from and a clear indication both of its ongoing vitality, and clear direction for the future.' – Andrew M McKinnon, University of Aberdeen, UK